News

LVM Supervisory Board Approves an Investment of 14.4 Million Euros in the Construction of a New Nursery

With a significant increase in the demand for forest tree seedlings grown in Latvia, on 1 July 2020, the Supervisory Board of JSC “Latvia’s State Forests” (LVM) approved an investment project for the construction of a new, state-of-the-art tree nursery “Mežvidi” in the vicinity of Jaunkalsnava. As part of the investment project, LVM will increase the amount of tree seedlings grown by 21% or 11.9 million, reaching 68.2 million seedlings per year by 2024. The total investment costs account for 14.4 million euros.

“The demand for high-quality, selected forest seedlings has increased significantly both in Latvia and in company's export markets, which improves the value and quality of future forests. Forest owners appreciate both the endurance and viability of the seedlings grown in LVM nurseries, as well as the high genetic potential of our local tree species created by Latvian forest scientists. Forest tree seedlings are also a high value-added export product of the company. Considering the steadily growing demand for forest tree seedlings, LVM Supervisory Board has approved the investment committee's offer to establish a new, modern nursery based on innovations and excellent technologies. In just four years, when the nursery reaches its maximum capacity, customers will be offered almost 70 million high-quality selected seedlings. It is also worth mentioning that the nursery will provide more than 50 new and stable jobs for local community,” says Elmārs Švēde, Member of LVM Supervisory Board.

In 2019, the company sold the largest amount of forest tree seedlings in its history – 56.3 million. About half of the seedlings were used for reforestation purposes, while the rest were sold to external buyers: 15.9 million to Latvian private forest owners, whereas 13.9 million seedlings were exported. The sales volumes have increased thanks to the investments made in the production of seedlings in previous years.

LVM seedlings compete successfully with the products offered by nurseries in Finland, Sweden, Poland and Germany. At the same time, the demand for quality seedlings has also increased significantly in the forests of Latvian private owners.

The construction of greenhouses, landfills, roads and water supply systems is scheduled to start in 2020. Currently, the total area of LVM nurseries covers almost 435 hectares, including 12.3 hectares of growing landfills and 5.5 hectares of greenhouses. 3.5 hectares of the total area of greenhouses are equipped with seasonal heating.

More information:

LVM Communication Unit

Tomass Kotovičs

Tel.: 29408866

E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it."